Maple Leaves
by Qyndox
Summary: Where violence and suffering flourished, only those with worth are allowed to live. Flowers are only prized when they are in bloom, before they start to wither. Once withered, they are discarded and replaced. Kaede was given a new chance and she was not going to be discarded. Her worth would never fade, and she was determined to made sure of it. AU, SIOC. Alive!parents
1. Prologue

Maple Leaves

a SI-OC story.

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Prologue: When light fades, the wind howls

* * *

So many things could have gone wrong the night Kushina had gone into labor. She was close to death so many times that night despite it being the night she welcomed her children to the world.

But despite everything, she survived with her children and husband. She had felt so helpless lying beside her twins as Minato went off to stall the chakra monster that had been sealed into her for so long. Her son Naruto was wailing in fear with hair as bright as Minato's, three lines running along his cheeks. Her daughter was unusually silent, with an unmarked face and a longer tuft of red hair with color identical to Kushina's.

At the time of their birth, her daughter had still not been given a name. She and Minato couldn't decide on a girls' name even as the date had approached.

But now they were safe with the village on high alert after the Kyuubi was resealed. Tsunade had been very insistent on Kushina recovering after such a stressful night, only allowing Minato and her children to see her. It was a few days after her birth that Minato and Kushina had decided on a name.

The red-haired kunochi was resting in bed with her daughter awake and curiously babbling at her surroundings. It felt like the joy from her baby was the best medicine Kushina would ask for. Though she would not dare say that within hearing distance of the last Senju.

The door opened and Minato came in holding Naruto who was fast asleep. Minato was just as exhausted if not more with dealing with the aftermath of the near-attack and the political effects. But for now he was a new father with his wife, their family safe.

"Minato, are you taking a break?" Kushina greeted, looking up from her spot on the bed.

"Yeah, I've been discussing how to handle the address with the council, but eventually we were just going in circles so I delayed the final decision. Not to mention Naruto seemed to get fussy with his watchers." The Yellow Flash said.

Kushina made a scrunched expression as she never did like the politics involved with the hokage position. Minato managed to laugh as he sat beside her on the chair next to the bed.

"We never did decide on a name for her Kushina." He softly spoke.

Kushina hummed in agreement. She tussled some of the fuzz that was her daughter's hair in thought. Glancing outside she noticed that the trees outside has turned a vivid red , some already falling off the branches.

"Hey Minato." The said person directed his attention to her. "Do you remember the day I beat up that genin? The day I called you out on following me around the village?"

Blushing in embarrassment Minato replied, "Yes, but why are you bringing that up again?"

Chuckling, the Uzumaki said, "I remember all the cherry blossom petals that fell and looking back, they really were beautiful. The same color of your cheeks too!" That only made the blonde jounin blush further.

Trying to save face Minato responded, "Those red leaves remind me of the woman they called the Red Hot Habereno, the one who could easily beat me up."

Now it was Kushina turn to blush in embarrassment. "What are you saying?"

Thinking for a moment, Minato answered, "Well she does have your red hair and she was born on a autumn night. I was thinking about something like that for her name."

Kushina looked out the window again before saying, "What kind of trees are those?"

Minato also turned to the flora outside, "Maple I believe."

With a smile on her face, Kushina said, "How about Kaede?"

Maple trees. The trees with the most vivid red leaves that feel during the fall season. Minato smiled, moving closer to his wife and looking at their daughter who was staring back with bright violet eyes nearly identical to that of her mother's. Soft giggling escaped the infant's mouth.

"...I think it's perfect."

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 **Originally Published: December 25th 2016  
**


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Apologies for the delay, RL matters took my focus away

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Chapter 1: gust caresses the leaves, falling onto the water's surface

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The chubby whiskered face would most likely be met with adoration or fondness but she only felt annoyance.

Also personal space was still a thing regardless of her current predicament. **SHOVE  
**

Wrinkling her nose, Kaede did her best impression of a sneer that a baby's face could manage. She could tolerate babies, but this was pushing her limits. The excessive drool did not help matters anyway.

Said source of her annoyance and drool began crying. Like full on crying. Sighing, she mentally counted to three before the door to their playroom burst open and a red-haired woman immediately scooped up the loud baby and cooing in a maternal manner.

It really would have been considered adorable to Kaede had the baby not been annoying her seconds ago. The woman was adorned in an apron and had long red hair that was tied into a loose bun. She was a beautiful woman so Kaede had no idea how she could birth such an irritating child.

"Naruto, you are so sensitive aren't you?" The woman-Kushina- softly mumbled to the blonde-haired baby in her arms. No surprise, because of course this was not the first time this happened.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, She crawled over to Kushina and plopped down near her feet. Reaching up, she tugged on the hem of her pants with her chubby hands.

Diverting her attention to her, Kushina smiled fondly. She found that those smiles made putting up with the blonde menace worth it. Returning the smile with a gummy one of her own, she lifted her arms to gesture wanting to be picked up. Sighing in exasperation, the red-haired woman shifted the other baby to one arm before bending over and carrying Kaede into her arms.

Completely at ease, Kaede closed her eyes and buried her face into the woman's neck. She noticed the smell of honey and jasmine. She could recall that she loved that combination, with faint recollections of hot cups of tea in another time.

But that would be best to leave away from her mind. Gripping a sleeve, Kaede drifted to sleep, probably due to her body's youth and need for constant sleep. Not that she was complaining, being lazy was a privilege that she was going to abuse as much as possible.

* * *

Once the craze of the night her twins were born was mostly settled, Kushina noticed something baffling. Her twins were very different. One might think that natural considering they were fraternal twins, but it extended beyond appearance. It was in their behavior.

Naruto was a very vocal and loud baby, apparently common from what Mikoto had told her. He cried often and it was never hard to know when he needed something or was just upset. He tended to wake her and Minato up in the night and early morning as they expected to deal with. That said Kushina still loved her son dearly and coddled him in every possible manner. Kakashi had to convince her that she didn't need to baby proof the ceiling lights. Well him and Minato, details details.

All in all, Naruto was a very normal baby, for one that had a demon sealed in his stomach.

Kushina's daughter on the other hand, was far from normal. She was very quiet and observant. She would occasionally catch her daughter watching her cooking or talking very keenly. She rarely cried and mostly whined when she needed something like a bottle. She never woke Kushina and Minato during the night when normal people would be sleeping. She also had a strong tendency to...well...bully her brother. Actually bully is too strong of a word. Kaede seemed to be prone to playing rough with her twin. She would shove him, tackle him and even slap him at times. Being a baby none of those efforts really did much harm other than cause her sibling to cry.

Yet whenever Kushina or Minato was around, Kaede almost never acted out and would also smile and laugh at them. She rarely did the same to her brother unless it was after inflicting some sort of physical torment on him. It worried Kushina a little but Minato had read a book about baby behavior and insisted that some babies developed differently and that Kaede would probably grow out of it.

Kushina tried to be around her children as much as possible but even she needed a break. Kakashi would watch them for the afternoon and evening while she went to catch up with her friends. It had been several months since her kids were born. Kaede was actually a few months ahead in the development department and Kushina knew that the phrase prodigy was being thrown around in their circle of comrades.

Already Kushina wished that her kids would stop growing up so fast. They were still babies dattebane!

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 **Originally published: June 4 2017**

 **A/N: Check out my other SIOC naruto fic "Sachiko"! It had a less cohesive story planned out but seems to be more popular based on the numbers *shrug***


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Only excuse is lack of inspiraiton, how about some love?

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Chapter 2: wind pushes the fallen tree, trampling the samplings

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If Kaede's previous reasons for disliking the blonde menace that was her biological twin weren't adequate, she was certain that this display in front of her was enough.

It was their shared first birthday and she could already feel a headache forming. Not that she particularly minded the overly enthusiastic party planning or the decorations that overflowed the room, but her _dearest brother_ was proving to irritate her beyond her limits.

He was being extremely fussy and prone to outbursts of tears and screeching. Nothing new but today seemed like a day that she cold catch a break from all the crying. Kaede honestly felt bad for her parents as they struggled with all the party preparations and dealing with a very distraught baby. The birthday banner was strung up crooked and the other baby in the room was only helping to stress their parents doubly.

Unlike the blonde menace, she had a sense to give their parents a break. Naruto refused to stop whining even when being held by Kushina. Kaede was half prepared t knock some sense into him when he finally ceased his tantrum.

The sense of relief was palpable with Kushina and Minato as they were given a moment of peace. Turning to Minato, Kushina asked, "Is it almost time for everyone to arrive?"

The older blonde, whose golden locks were akin to wisps of sunlight, looked at the clock, "In thirty minutes dear. Let's get the two birthday babies ready." With that, Minato bent over and scooped Kaede up from the floor. Grumbling, she idly played with the locks of yellow hair as she was sentenced to another mortifying round of dress up due to her current status of age.

She was dressed in a small, lavender kimono with light pink highlights. It was comfortable and not too restraining so Kaede was fine with it. The annoyance was wearing a dark blue kimono with light green highlights. If she ignored who was wearing it, it was a pretty sight.

The guest arrived not long after, filling in like sardines. Clan heads, friends of the parents, the hokage, some drooling babies, nothing special. The gifts were a pleasure for both Kaede and the menace. With a lot of people, many presents were brought as well.

There were rubber kuani's and shurikan, toddler clothes, sugary treats, ninja propaganda books for children, stuff that was pretty useless for the most part.

Unfortunately, being a twin, many of the gifts were a two for one deal, meaning they were for both her and the annoyance.

Kaede wanted to complain about this discrimination against twin-born, but even her advanced vocabulary could not express such a thing. It is not like the word for share came up often. Kaede was quite certain that she said something along the lines of "no same". No one got her meaning.

Ninjas, she disappointingly thought, can't even put those deduction skills to use with a freaking baby! Okay so Kaede was a bit bitter about that, but she could never eloquently voice her logical hatred of her twin.

She couldn't even recognize the future clan head as babies since most of them had similar hair colors. At least the blonde menace was very distinguishable with that golden hair. Same for Kaede with her deep crimson threads.

The red hair was something Kaede was fond of from the start. Despite being on her at all times, her hair was memorizing to her.

Shaking her head to rid her mind of the thought tangent, Kaede stared back at a drooling face inches from her own.

"Wyyaahhh!" **SHOVE.** The face, along with it's attached body fell backwards. It was only when the offending baby began wailing did Kaede notice the red triangle markings on the baby's cheeks. Normally Kaede would have actually tried processing that, but she was too bristled and upset to care at the moment.

Urgh, the brat almost drooled on her! Kaede scrunched up her face in disgust and diverted her forming glare at the offending person. No one could protest at her violent act this time, the kid had it coming. Her attacker-turned-victim still wailed on.

That was when a muscular (hey can you blame Kaede for noticing) woman with the same markings picked up the younger Kiba.

Unlike the comforting gestures and soothing words Kushina used on Naruto, the Inuzuka clan matriarch distracted her baby by making Kiba laugh. It actually worked quite fast.

A boisterous laugh from Tsume scared the daylights out of Kaede, "Shina, Nato, your kid is a strong spirit already. You must be proud of this brat!" Huh, Kaede didn't really pay attention to what anyone thought of her. This should be interesting.

"Now Kaede you shouldn't shove, it's not nice." Minato chided me in a exasperated manner. Though there was not much force behind that, Kaede made it clear that she did not care.

Kushina on the other hand, "We sure are Tsume! Kaede is just like me! Is it because of the looks inherited from me?" She adopted a thoughtful expression, while Tsume and Minato just 't blame them, that was a cute look on Kaede's parent. Kaede'd like to think that she inherited that utter adorableness as well because she sure wasn't getting it from her previous life.

Kaede swore that if they tried arranging her to marry anyone, she was defecting just for that. Or exited this life. Hmm a bit morbid of a thought for this early in her life as Kaede.

But she really shouldn't expect so much from an ancient civilization as this world. She was still expecting to have to take drastic measures to escape if all the horrible, savage customs were realized in this world she found herself in.

It was not her fault; the world pushed in her one direction, so she would end up trampling something when falling a different way.

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 **A/N: Just some small hints and I had to get something out or this story will never continue :/**

 **Any predictions? Thoughts? Criticism?**

 **Originally published: August 2 2017**


End file.
